Lesbian Moms Win Legal Breakthrough In Italy’s High Court

Italy’s Constitutional Court has delivered a landmark ruling in favor of same-sex couples, declaring that lesbian parents who conceive through IVF abroad must both be legally recognized as mothers, even though one is not the biological parent.

The court ruled that refusing to legally recognize the non-biological mother goes against constitutional principles of equality and personal identity, and harms the child’s right to receive care, education, and emotional support from both parents.

This long-awaited decision strikes down a portion of a 2004 law that blocked both women in a same-sex couple from being legally registered as mothers. The ruling offers long-overdue legal clarity for LGBTQ+ families who have been subjected to patchwork recognition depending on where in Italy they live.

In some municipalities, mayors have permitted both mothers to appear on a child’s birth certificate. In others, the non-biological mother has been excluded entirely, leaving families vulnerable and unevenly protected. As the court noted, “These divergent outcomes reflect a shifting social reality to which the legislature has yet to respond.”

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The case that led to this breakthrough was referred from a court in the Tuscan city of Lucca, where a lesbian couple challenged the denial of “full dual parenthood.” The judges questioned the legality of barring legal recognition of both mothers, particularly when both had consented to the conception and raised the child together.

LGBTQ+ advocates celebrated the ruling as a major step forward in a country where queer families have often been left out in the cold.

Marilena Grassadonia, an activist with the Italian Left opposition party, called it a “historic day” and said the decision “restores dignity and serenity to the many rainbow families who live in our country,” according to Reuters.

While the decision marks a significant shift toward equality, it does not change existing laws on who can access IVF. Under current Italian legislation, IVF remains largely restricted to heterosexual couples only. For queer couples, the decision to approve the treatment is frustratingly left to doctors, who evaluate each case individually.

In a separate ruling issued the same day, the Constitutional Court upheld that restriction for single women, stating that the law is not unconstitutional. But it also left room for future change, noting that the rules could be revised if lawmakers in parliament choose to act.

That kind of political will has been in short supply under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s conservative government, which has taken an aggressive stance against LGBTQ+ rights and reproductive freedom.

Related: Italy Might Not Feel Safe For Queer People, But This Milan Trans-Feminist Bar Does

Last year, Italy passed one of Europe’s harshest surrogacy bans, making it a criminal offense to seek surrogacy services abroad—even in countries where the practice is legal. Offenders face up to two years in prison and fines of up to €1 million. Meloni has called surrogacy “an inhuman practice,” adding, “I support the bill that makes it a universal crime.”

LGBTQ+ groups and reproductive rights advocates have denounced the legislation as discriminatory and ideologically driven. Michela Calabrò, head of the Transfeminist Women’s Network at Arcigay, said the law is a “serious denial of individual freedoms and self-determination” that “not only limits the possibility of choice, but also feeds a patriarchal vision of the women’s bodies.”

“Every woman must have the right to decide how, when and whether to want to carry on a pregnancy, and gestation for others can be a conscious and altruistic choice,” she said in a statement last year. “This measure highlights the inability of the Government and Parliament to deal with other important and urgent issues in our country.”

Still, the Constitutional Court’s IVF ruling offers hope that, despite political resistance, the law is capable of adapting to the lives, love, and families of LGBTQ+ people in Italy.